He had saved her life—again.
She frowned as she realized the structure had collapsed on top of the three bodies lying outside the door of the barn, too. There’d be no mangled bodies for Gage to have to explain. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he had orchestrated that.
He held out his hand for her. After several long moments, she finally took it and let him help her up. But the moment she was on her feet, she put some distance between them. It was a joke—she’d seen how fast he could move.
In the distance, she could hear sirens approaching. Someone had called the cops. Gage swore under his breath.
“Mackenzie, you have to promise me you’ll never tell anyone about what you saw. If you breathe a word of this, my life, and the lives of every man on the SWAT team will be destroyed.”
His face was so earnest, it almost brought fresh tears to her eyes. “It won’t be like that, Gage. You’re a cop. You were defending us. You’ll be a hero. That’s the way I’ll write it.”
The sirens got louder as they drew closer.
Gage’s jaw tightened. “Yeah, if your editor doesn’t demand you change it,” he said bitterly. “Even if he doesn’t, what happens after that, huh? When the other reporters who aren’t as idealistic as you get ahold of the footage on that camera of yours and see how I tore that man apart? You think they’ll treat us like heroes? They’ll think we’re monsters.”
Mac flushed. She couldn’t very well say he was wrong when she’d thought the same thing a few moments ago. “It’s like I told you back at the restaurant. Secrets are better when they’re out in the open.”
“You don’t get to decide that,” he growled.
“People like me have a right to know that people like you exist.”
“Do you even hear yourself?” he demanded. “You were terrified of me, and we’ve spent the past two days in bed together. How do you think the rest of the world is going to react? The ones who don’t want to hunt us down and kill us outright will want to capture us and cut us up for research.”
“That’s not true.” Mac shook her head. She refused to believe they lived in a world where people would allow something like that to happen. “This isn’t the Dark Ages. People don’t go around in mobs carrying torches and pitchforks anymore. Not everyone is as bad as you seem to think.”
He snorted. “You’re right. Sometimes they’re worse. Walter Hardy comes to mind. Or have you forgotten he just sent men to kill us?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten,” she said. “All the more reason to let him and people like him know what you are. What the whole SWAT team is. He’d be terrified to go after you.”
The lights from the police cars flashed against the trees, getting closer. Gage muttered something under his breath. “I’m not going to be able to talk you out of writing this story, am I?”
Mac didn’t answer. It was her job to keep people informed. Why couldn’t he understand that? More importantly, why couldn’t he trust her to handle this in the best possible way?
The same look of sadness was back in his eyes, this time mixed with hurt. “At least give me twenty-four hours before you run it. I think you owe me that much, don’t you?”
If it were anyone else, she never would have agreed, but he was right—after what they’d shared, she owed him that much. In truth, she owed him a hell of a lot more. But she wouldn’t be doing her job as a journalist if she didn’t write this story. And maybe after it ran, he’d see that she was right and they could get back to that place they’d been before Hardy’s hired guns had tried to kill them.
Realizing she hadn’t answered his question, she nodded.
Half a dozen police cars came into view, their lights bouncing off the farmer’s field as they navigated the uneven terrain.
“I can’t protect you and my pack at the same time, Mackenzie,” Gage said. “You’re still a target. Be careful.”
Gage didn’t wait for a reply, but turned and strode across the clearing toward the police cars. Mac had been a target before and she’d always taken care of herself just fine, but for some stupid reason, knowing he put his pack ahead of her hurt. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t sure if she was doing the right thing.
Chapter 11
It was almost 0200 hours by the time Gage got to the compound. Between giving a statement to the cops who’d responded to the incident, then the duty captain who’d come out after hearing who Gage was, he’d barely had enough time for a quick call to tell Mike he was okay before Deputy Chief Mason had shown up with a half dozen detectives and Internal Affairs. The newsies hadn’t been far behind. Cops getting called out to a rural farm area about reports of automatic weapons fire was one thing. Finding out that a member of the city’s SWAT team had been targeted and ambushed by seven foreign killers armed with those automatic weapons? That was something completely different, and it drew a lot of attention.
It had taken a long time to answer Internal Affairs’ questions. It was tough making up a story that explained everything that’d happened, especially when he was thinking of Mackenzie and what a damn fool he’d been to trust her. Luckily, the entire department had heard the rumors about Hardy bringing in some hired killers, so they were more than ready to believe the men had come to kill him and Mackenzie. The part they had a hard time believing was how one man—even if he was SWAT—managed to kill seven cold-blooded killers with just his off-duty weapon and his bare hands.
Gage had really outdone himself on that part of the story. He should get a freaking Oscar for his acting skills.
And while they were handing out awards, Mackenzie should get one, too, because she’d really made him believe she gave a damn about him. But all she’d ever wanted was a fucking story, and he’d been so convinced she wasTheOne, he hadn’t even seen it. Fool that he was, he’d thought he might be able to make one last appeal to her after Internal Affairs had finished with him, but Mason told him she’d asked if one of the uniformed officers could take her home.
While he was still mad as hell at Mackenzie, Gage was also worried about her. He hadn’t been making that crap up about her being a target. But as much as he wanted to protect her, his first priority was to his pack. Besides, she’d made her decision. She was probably back at the newsroom going over her video evidence and writing the first draft of a story that’d earn her another award for her wall, and end his life, and those of men who were like brothers to him.
It was his own damn fault. He never should have let her get so close. Hell, he should never have let her into the compound. But he’d been fooled by her smile and her pretty face—and yeah, her sexy body, too—and ignored the fact that she’d been after one thing and one thing only—a story. And when her smile and pretty face hadn’t gotten her anywhere, she’d used her body to get what she wanted. She’d slept with him and made him feel things that weren’t real. And when he’d gotten careless, she’d been there to record the whole thing.
